Ya Know You're Old When....

[oggbashan]

I totally know i am asking to be called various sickeningly 'young' related things, but what the fuck are Party Lines?

There weren't enough telephone numbers, and equipment, for one telephone number for each household so one ring meant the first subscriber, two rings meant the second subscriber and so on. All the telephones on the party line rang at once so you listened to see if it was your ring-pattern. My parents were on a party line after an eighteen-month wait and were upgraded to a single line after another year because my father worked in the Ministry of Defence and had "official" calls. In retrospect I think he asked his colleagues to call him at home just to increase the log of "official" calls.

If you wanted to make a call, you lifted the receiver. If someone was speaking you were supposed to put the phone down (but often didn't and listened in to your neighbour's conversation).

Og

 

[oggbashan]

The standard by which age is judged is if you remember where you were when you heard Kennedy (JFK) had been shot.

I was working in the British Ministry of Defence. My office got out the war plans just in case.

Og

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I totally know i am asking to be called various sickeningly 'young' related things, but what the fuck are Party Lines?

Wow! Am I that old?


If you want to call me, I'm two longs and a short.

 

[SimpleGifts]

I heard a Talking Heads chart that I liked in college...on a "classic rock" radio station.

I also just found my old HP calculator, which uses reverse Polish commands. Do they still have that?

SG

 

[SimpleGifts]

The standard by which age is judged is if you remember where you were when you heard Kennedy (JFK) had been shot.

Sorry, it's been updated to where you were when you heard Reagan was shot.

SG

 

[Fallenfromgrace]

There weren't enough telephone numbers, and equipment, for one telephone number for each household so one ring meant the first subscriber, two rings meant the second subscriber and so on. All the telephones on the party line rang at once so you listened to see if it was your ring-pattern. My parents were on a party line after an eighteen-month wait and were upgraded to a single line after another year because my father worked in the Ministry of Defence and had "official" calls. In retrospect I think he asked his colleagues to call him at home just to increase the log of "official" calls.

If you wanted to make a call, you lifted the receiver. If someone was speaking you were supposed to put the phone down (but often didn't and listened in to your neighbour's conversation).

Og

I geddiiiit thanks Og

so what happened if you missed it or you picked up someone elses call accidently?

 

[oggbashan]

I geddiiiit thanks Og

so what happened if you missed it or you picked up someone elses call accidently?

If you were out the operator would tell the caller "The subscriber isn't answering".

If you picked up someone else's call at the same time that person would ask you to leave the line. In the UK party lines were usually close neighbours and would cooperate for example by taking messages if you didn't answer.

There were disputes about use of party lines, for example if one household had a chatty teenager. You could always break in to the call and ask them to end their conversation and get off the line if you had an urgent call to make. As long as no one did that too often and only did it for real emergencies such as summoning a doctor then breaking off your call was no real problem.

If you wanted to make an important long-distance (trunk) call, it was polite to tell your neighbours in advance so that they would avoid using the phone.

Doris Day made a film "Pillow Talk" about sharing a party line.

Og

 

[LoquaciousLady]

Sorry, it's been updated to where you were when you heard Reagan was shot.

SG

No, I'm sorry, we can't do that. It moves the line much too close to my own age. I was alive then. Of course, they didn't interrupt my episode of Sesame Street (brought to you by the letters A and Q and the number 7!) with the news bulletin.

 

[Fallenfromgrace]

If you were out the operator would tell the caller "The subscriber isn't answering".

If you picked up someone else's call at the same time that person would ask you to leave the line. In the UK party lines were usually close neighbours and would cooperate for example by taking messages if you didn't answer.

There were disputes about use of party lines, for example if one household had a chatty teenager. You could always break in to the call and ask them to end their conversation and get off the line if you had an urgent call to make. As long as no one did that too often and only did it for real emergencies such as summoning a doctor then breaking off your call was no real problem.

If you wanted to make an important long-distance (trunk) call, it was polite to tell your neighbours in advance so that they would avoid using the phone.

Doris Day made a film "Pillow Talk" about sharing a party line.

Og

Ahhh, thanks for the info Ogg

Just in case people were wondering just how 'young' i am, (i dont know if its in my proile anymore) but i am yet to turn 21 in august

 

[_Lynn_]

Thank you, old people, for reviving my faith in your species. It's kind of nice to see you elderly folks not being one bit cranky or curmudgeonly.

But seriously, I've been wondering a lot lately if you're just supposed to get mean when you hit 50 or if it's all the pesticides in the air around here that make the old people that way. Not that 50 is even "old." It just seems to be when the meanness sets in in these parts.

Getting mean isn't equated with hitting a certain age around here. My brother has been that way for years and he's 47 now.


I remember when my mom made her own TV dinners from leftovers.

Powdered milk.

No lunches offered at school.

Not being allowed to wear slacks to school per their policy.

Going to the drug store and ordering a cherry coke at the soda fountain...and paying twelve cents for it!!

 

[Vermilion]

Well I started feeling old when I realised that there were civil servants younger than me (teachers, policemen and, as of this year, doctors).


Of course, living on a university campus does not help matters, though fortunately it just tends to put you *off* the youth of today, rather than making you wish you *were* one.

 

[TxRad]

I totally know i am asking to be called various sickeningly 'young' related things, but what the fuck are Party Lines?

Ogg did a better job and anyway, I should read all the pages before answering a question

 

[oggbashan]

You know that you're old when you appreciate:

HOUSE

Turning on a tap produces cold water. (instead of pumping it from the well)

Flicking a switch produces light. (instead of using a match on the paraffin lamp, or lighting a gas lamp)

Cooking doesn't start with shovelling coal.

Turning on a tap produces hot water.

Pulling a chain (or pressing a lever) flushes the toilet and you have your OWN toilet instead of sharing an earth closet with your neighbours.

Your bedroom is heated and you don't need a stoneware hot water bottle to unfreeze the sheets.

You don't need to shovel tonnes of coal every winter and dispose of tonnes of ash and clinker.

CAR

You have a car.

You don't need a starting handle to start your car.

You don't need to put thermal underwear on and wear a warm coat and gloves to drive the car in winter.

You don't need to open the car's windscreen to demist it.

You don't need to open the side window and lean out with a squeezy bottle to wash the windscreen.

You don't need to grease a dozen greasing points on the steering every 500 miles.

You don't need to adjust the rods on your brake system.

The headlights actually illuminate the road ahead.

50 miles an hour isn't dangerously fast.

You don't have to reverse up steep hills because reverse gear is a lower ratio than first.

You don't have to charge the battery every week.

Rain doesn't come into the car through the opening windscreen nor surface water come up between the gaps in the floorboards.

Rear seat passengers don't need to wrap themselves in rugs.

MUSIC

Playing a record doesn't mean changing the disc every four minutes nor winding the gramophone.

The radio actually plays pop music and you have a choice of stations without the need for an aerial 100 feet long.

Og

 

[Ootpic]

Like Ogg, I can remember cranking a magneto to power up the line before making a telephone call.
Ice boxes (instead of a refrigerator.)
Paying five dollars to fill the tank when the gas gauge pointed to empty.
Electric buses running off overhead power cables.
When people who followed the Soaps, did so with a radio.
When playing 33 1/3 rpm Long Playing records on Hi Fi equipment was the latest fad. (Anybody remember stereo sound effects records?)
Turning on our 9 inch television when I got home after school and watching the test pattern for a few minutes before the programs started.
Coonskin caps, hula hoops, duck and cover drills, Freedom Riders, and Mercury launches.
I can even remember when there were only 6 hockey teams in the NHL.

 

[oggbashan]

When playing 33 1/3 rpm Long Playing records on Hi Fi equipment was the latest fad. (Anybody remember stereo sound effects records?)...

What do you mean, remember stereo sound effects records?

I still have mine...

The ping-pong match; the steam train passing; the jet taking off...

Og

 

[Tarakin]

You know that you're old when you appreciate:

HOUSE

Turning on a tap produces cold water. (instead of pumping it from the well)

Flicking a switch produces light. (instead of using a match on the paraffin lamp, or lighting a gas lamp)

Cooking doesn't start with shovelling coal.

(...)
Og

... not having to chase the roman army out of your backyard...

My grandfather used a gas lamp, for he was a miner, and I carried coal myself when I was a kid for warming our room, but you really used a well?? Did you live in a remote countryside?

 

[DesertPirate]

The standard by which age is judged is if you remember where you were when you heard Kennedy (JFK) had been shot.

Second grade at lunch

 

[Wildcard Ky]

My first feeling of being old was when I found myself lusting after the hot young number that had moved in next door. Turns out she was the same age as my oldest daughter.............................

 

[Ootpic]

What do you mean, remember stereo sound effects records?
I still have mine...
Og

I envy you. After six career changes, twenty-three changes of residence (twenty-four if you count the time that the residence changed locations with me) across six countries on two continents; after three changes of SO, one legal and two extra legal, the only things I still retain which date back earlier than 1997 is an arthritic hip and my memories.

 

[Boxlicker101]

You are attracted to girls young enough to be your daughter.

I haven't reached that one yet, but I'm getting close.

Daughter? HAH! Granddaughter!

 

[TE999]

How ironic I should find this thread....today.

My "go to sleep" book for the last several nights is Bill Bryson's "Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, A memoir".....

It is a truly wonderful book.... as many of his books are. I was first exposed to him while working in England.... where, at the time, he was probably the best known American author... at least with the people I knew. For many there, it was their discovery that an American could actually have a sense of humor....

But I digress (it's the old age thing...) THIS book is a laugh out loud journey back in time...... and the memories come flooding back to me with more than a couple joyful tears...

I warmly commend it to all you other "old farts" out there.... as well as any "old farts to be".....

-KC

I'll drink to that KC!

That book is a riot--and really nails the 50's--reminded me of my childhood--personally not as funny--but the settings are on the mark.

 

[glynndah]

I just finished that book last week. Some very funny things in there.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Like Ogg, I can remember cranking a magneto to power up the line before making a telephone call.
Ice boxes (instead of a refrigerator.)
Paying five dollars to fill the tank when the gas gauge pointed to empty.
Electric buses running off overhead power cables.
When people who followed the Soaps, did so with a radio.
When playing 33 1/3 rpm Long Playing records on Hi Fi equipment was the latest fad. (Anybody remember stereo sound effects records?)
Turning on our 9 inch television when I got home after school and watching the test pattern for a few minutes before the programs started.
Coonskin caps, hula hoops, duck and cover drills, Freedom Riders, and Mercury launches.
I can even remember when there were only 6 hockey teams in the NHL.

As I recall, those teams were Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, New York and Boston. By rights, it should have been called The International League.

I remember most of the things you and Og do. Also, 78RPM records, The pledge of Allegiance WITHOUT "Under God", and $.25 gasoline.

Og, what is an "earth closet"? I well remember wooden outhouses, or privies, or back houses, and the railroad station in my home town used to have one. I guess the cars that I saw when I was a kid, even my grandfather's Model A, were better than the cars you had around.

 

[SeaCat]

Oh Sweet Jesus I'm thinking I must be an ancient in a young body. Then again I did grow up in rather different circumstances.

I was born in 1965 and spent much of my mis-spent youth tramping around the Northern United States and upon occasion Europe.

Dinner at night being what was shot or caught that morning was not a novelty.

One town we lived in had a Gravity Feed Glass Top Gas pump.

The first vehicle I learned to drive was a 5hp home made mini bike when I was 7. I quickly moved up to a 10 hp as well as a rather large tractor.

The first car I learned to drive in was a beat to hell Cortina.

Heat in our houses was usualy produced by a wood stove. (As was our Hot Water.)

Most of our TV's were Heathkits made by my father. (He insisted I help.)

By the time I moved to the Cape I had lived in seven states and three countries.

Shall I go on?

Cat

 

[sweetness6280]

Most of our TV's were Heathkits made by my father. (He insisted I help.)

Cat

OMG, I remember Heathkits. The first "stereo" system we had was made by my father.