JFF Feeling Old....Dating Myself

I remember only paying .25 to cross the bridge - now it's $5.00! I also remember where I was on 9/11 and even how frightened I was. I remember my mother's reaction to the assassination of JFK although I was so young I didn't understand the significance of it.

I also remember before the age of technology and I must say, that I really preferred that simpler time.

I can easily remember the gas crisis in the 70's, when Elvis died and the Jonestown massacre. I was in High School when Challenger exploded and working on 9/11.

I can also remember only having 3 channels on the TV, no cordless phones and they only had the circle dials. I remember soda being sold in glass bottles and when they introduced the plastic ones. I remember when pharmaceuticals were not advertised on TV or radio, only OTC stuff. And I remember life without computers and cell phones and sometimes I miss it.

I was in my sophomore high school biology class when the Challenger exploded. In fact, we were watching the launch on tv and so this was quite an upsetting event.

I remember being on the school bus in 5th grade on a field trip--- the radio was on-- they announced that John Lennon had been shot. I also remember waking up Christmas morning of that same school year and hearing that Iran and Iraq were at war-- and I remember thinking "people are fighting and killing each other on Christmas somewhere in the world".

I also remember Tony Orlando and Dawn (remember there were two Dawns?) singing "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and that Sonny and Cher had a variety show. Andy Gibb was my first crush at seven. I grew up with Disney's books on LP (complete with the book being read and songs from the movies) and my parents had blacklight posters in their bedroom!

Oh, and the whole Elvis thing?! I couldn't have told you who Elvis was, but my babysitter was rather distraught!

You youngsters crack me up sometimes........

I grew up in a house with no indoor plumbing, had an outhouse, and taking a bath meant carry water in, heat it on the stove or in the reservoir of the wood cook stove, put the water in a galvanized tub and sponge bathe. The water came from a cistern where rain water ran in.

We went to the well with a windmill to get fresh drinking water, carried it in a bucket and a dipper where everyone drank from the dipper. We kept a pitcher of water in the refrigerator for cold water.
We had electricity, but no TV, we listened to the radio, Saturday night was "the Grand Ole Opry".
I was in 5th grade when we got dial telephone and it was a party line, where all your neighbors were connected, so everyone was on the phone talking to each other and everyone knew when someone called someone else..
Before that, the crank phone was on the wall, you rang the operator who said, "hello central", you asked her to call someone for you through a switchboard. If you called someone yourself, it was done by number of rings, a short, a long, two shorts, two longs. Everyone had a different ring.

I milked cows before and after school every day!! We did have an electric milking machine, but if electricity was out, we did it by hand. I learned to drive a tractor at age 10 to work in the hayfield and learned to drive a car at 14 with a stick shift in a 1952 chevy.

We had an "assembly" at school to watch a black and white TV of John Glenn going into orbit in a space ship.
I was a sophomore in high school when John F. Kennedy was killed.
My freshman year in college (now called a state university), no jeans were allowed, no sweatshirts, girls wore dresses or skirts. Guys wore "ivy leagues", slacks with belts.

My first car was a 1971 Ford Mustang, fresh off the showroom floor, $3400 and my car payments were $100 per month. My first job as an RN paid $3.83 per hour after working a year for my first raise. Gasoline was $0.19 to 0.25 per gallon. The gas station attendant pumped the gas, checked oil, water and tires and washed the windows of the car.

I could share much more, but will spare you as you are probably laughing with tears in your eyes by now... Though I could retire, I don't feel "old" enough and I am not ready. Just got Medicare.

Now I bet you all feel much younger!

I remember the odd and even days(numbers on licence plates) for getting gas, and the line stretching down the street! (under Carter?)
I remember when 1976 hit because they kept putting ~1776~ with it and calling it centennial.I remember when , if you wanted to watch a Christmas cartoon, you had to catch it on TV, and if you missed it, you missed it until next year. (no dvds or tapes)
I remember when the TV channels on the TV were UHF and VHF. One of those only got 2 stations, channels 36 and 44! And you had adjust bunny ears, and get up and turn the dial. Then they had cable boxes with push buttons that you set on top of the console tv...., which were so modern! Anyone remember the perfect 36? (Carol Doda). Anyone remember HR Puff and Stuff, or the Banana Splits? Romper Room? Soul train? The Newlywed Game? Jack La Lane?

Remember when women wore dresses everywhere? All the women shopping in the grocery stores were in dresses/mini skirts and heels? And older men wore hats everywhere outside? People wouldn't be caught dead in casual clothes at church? Women 'ratted' their hair to get a bun on top of their head?It was stylish to smoke and every household had an ashtray with a built in cigarette lighter in it sitting on the coffee table? It was stylish for women to wear wigs and most women had 2 or 3?

The Avon lady hit every house on your street? Neighbors wouldn't think twice about borrowing eggs or a cup of sugar, and the milkman brought glass jars of milk to your home and left them on the porch? Public mailboxes were on the major street corners? Seatbelts didn't exist, and you could stuff 10 kids into a station wagon? Windows in homes and in cars had to be 'rolled' up and down with a handle? Remember the white flocked Christmas tree phase(and the really lucky ones had a spotlight on the tree that would change colors.) Used clothing sales were called Rummage sales? Kids got ONE vaccine /booster shot ....in the upper arm? All the kids in the families and at school were healthy, and that was the norm, rather than the norm now that every family seems to have at least one sick kid? In 10 years, you would probably only get the flu once ...maybe twice - in 10 years. Remember wax lips, Wacky Taffy, and Marathon Bars? When ice cream bars on the ice cream truck were 25-50 cents? Dittos pants? Satin baseball jackets? Libraries stamped the due dates inside the cover of the books? The card catalog was actually a bank of cards in dwarers? Missing kids were printed on milk cartons?

I'll bite & make you feel a lot younger. I was in my first year of college when the Challenger exploded. I remember calling my sister who was at work on Wall Street in NY - I called her from a PAY PHONE. Some of the moms on here might need to Google what a pay phone is - lol. She told me about the Challenger and we were both so sad. I was in a training class when the Columbia exploded and I was on my way to a MOPS meeting with my then 2 year old DD in the back seat of my car when the first plane hit on 9/11.

Yes, it really is strange how your mind records things like that.

I remember my mom being so sad when she learned that Elvis had died that day.
I remember when the Challenger exploded.
I got up early (3:30am) to watch Princess Diana get married.
Had the news on on 9/11 & saw the 2nd plane hit the tower. So sad. This
moved me to no end. I was frozen in my tracks.

To end this on a lighter note, we had 8 tracks, portable radios with cassettes, record players w/vinyl, no seat belts in the car, cars were huge/weighed a ton & had bench seats, you had to get up to turn the channel on the tv & there were only 4 channels, every house had a big antennae on their roof, their tv's had "rabbit" ears to get better reception, velcro wallets were very in! We roller skated on those strap on metal skates w/wheels, went to roller rinks, played PacMan @ the arcade & pinball machines, if you went to the bathroom....you missed part of the show, my parents watched the Lawrence Welk show & Hee Haw.

Wow, I not only just relived my youth in telling but now I feel old! ;) J/K

OMG I know how you feel! I, too remember all of what you said.
I remember rubber bracelets being cool and slouch socks and neon and leg warmers.
I remember being a huge Madonna fan and the Virgin tour and Desperately Seeking Susan coming out.
I remember Atari, gameboys, walkmans, VCRs and home phone lines with answering machines LOL! I remember beepers and payphones and poofed up hair.
Seeing these "retro" things come back makes me feel old!
Funny question!

I was in my first year of college too when Challenger exploded. Did we make you feel not so old? :)

I remember being in the 7th grade when Kennedy was shot. We had to write a two-page paper on Kennedy's life and accomplishments.

We were given three days off of school so we could watch Kennedy's funeral. I remember being so angry that we got those days off, but couldn't watch TV because all three networks had coverage of Kennedy's funeral and no regular programming was on TV.

I remember the Kennedy Nixon debates prior to the 1960 election. Not because I was interested, but because my dad was.

I remember when my dad, USAF, was a jet fighter mechanic left one morning with his duffle bag and we didn't see him for about six months. We didn't know where he was or when or if we would ever see him again. He was working 20 hours a day down in Florida repairing the fighters that were patrolling the ocean around Cuba.

I remember when a family was a mom and a dad that were married and then they had kids.

I remember when a girl was married if she lived with a man or she was a prostitute and wasn't married.

I remember paying $.25 a gallon for gas and thought I was being ripped off by the oil companies. The lowest price I paid was $.18 gallon.

I remember a time when if you had excellent credit you would be charged 21% interest to buy a car with 20% down. (Under Jimmy Carter.)

I could write a lot more, but this is enough. BTW, I had just retired when 911 happened. I saw the second plane hit the WTC because I was watching the news.

Good luck to you and yours.

HA... I remember when on Sunday nights, the Wonder World of Disney would be on.... My brother and I couldn't wait to watch it..............
I also remember watching the Tony Orlando Show and thinking one day I would marry someone just like him........... so dreamy........ :) hahah
also.. Jack Lalanne !!!! LOVE LOVED watching him.. I was only about 7 or 8.. but I'd try hard to do the exercises that he presented... oh and don't get me started on the Galloping Gourmet !!! hahahah
oh and the best candy in the wordl, Crown's regal sour cherry!!!! damn you crown for discontinuing it!!! nothing will ever replace that splendid sour cherry taste!! and no, not even you cherry jolly rancher... :(

what can I say, I am child of the 70s...

Well, this will really make you feel YOUNG. I remember when Elvis died. I think I had just turned 14. My great aunt from CA called (to MN) to tell us and calling long distance back then was a BIG DEAL. I remember a lot of other current events since then, but that was one of my younger memories.

ETA: I thought you were going to mention bones or lack of motion for aging and dating yourself. Nice departure.
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I will add to 8kidsdad and recall Sputnik, Cuban missile crisis and news about Russia invading Poland.

Funny you bring up Challenger incident my next door neighbor gave birth that day -- funny thing a teenager who was able to "hide" her pregnancy very well as she babysat a week prior for me.

I have started a book of sorts. Each event is on an index card so that I can fill in the details at a later date about what happened while I was here on the planet for my grands to read.

Well life is full of many surprises.

the other S.

I only vaguely remember the Challenger explosion, I think I was in grade school, but it was so long ago. 9/11 I remember very well, I was on a Marine base in Okinawa Japan on lock down due to the typhoon pounding the Island. My husband was supposed to have left for deployment the day before but the typhoon had delayed the units departure. We watched the events unfold, not knowing yet what it might mean for our future as a military family, and mourning for all the loss and death so far away in our home land. I don't think I will ever forget it.

I remember when John Lennon was shot. It was like a horrible trifecta - Lennon, the pope and president Reagan. I went to a party that evening and we listened to Beatles and Lennon songs all night. For some reason the Challenger disaster just was not one of those events for me. I was in college and we had no tv so while I was aware of it (radio, newspaper), the images just never became seared into my consciousness like 9/11.

I was at work for 9/11 - I can still see everything that happened that day. Someone put all the phones all over the office onto speaker so we could hear the news all day no matter where you were. That was the one that made me understand what Kennedy's assassination was to an older generation. I visited the book depository in Dallas the following summer and I know it never would have been as meaningful if 9/11 had not happened.

I remember Watergate - basically it preempted 'real' shows on tv. I remember my parents making us watch when Nixon resigned. I remember Elvis dying - it didn't make a big impression though.

Old, I remember the air raid drills and getting under our desks!!! Talk about feeling old LOL.

I do remember every big event, Pay of Pigs, JFK assassination etc.

I was in 5th grade when the Challenger exploded. The actual launch was during our lunch period but we were supposed to watch coverage after lunch. It was a big deal because the teacher on board was a New Englander. We heard about it during lunch and then watched in stunned horror as they covered it on TV.

I was on my way into work (late as usual) when 9/11 happened. I listen to a morning music and comedy show and when the first plane hit, they were kind of joking about it thinking it was a small recreational plane and how bad could the pilot have been to not notice the WTC? It didn't occur to anyone that it was intentional. Anyway...the DJs had the TV on in their studio looking for more on the first story and carrying on in their normal banter when the second one hit. They reacted on the air in real time and it was terrifying to hear what had just happened. I remember where I was on the highway when I first heard. Anyway...when I got to my office no one had heard yet so I was the one who broke the news to my office. One of the guys I supported had flown from Boston to NY that morning and his wife was on the phone with me hysterical as more and more details came out that the planes had taken off from Boston. He was fine but it was a scary hour until we confirmed that his flight had been diverted and that he was in a rental car driving home. A woman in my office was on one of the planes, on her way to a Hawaiian vacation. My parent company was in the WTC so we lost a lot of colleagues. What a surreal time that was.

I remember being stuck in traffic with Columbine happened. I was on my way home from a modelling screening with my oldest son, who was a baby.

I was in my dorm Freshman year in college when Kurt Cobain died, and I was on an overnight at a beach house with some girlfriends when Michael Jackson died...we were getting pedicures and watching coverage of that on the news.

I got up early with my mom to watch Princess Diana and Prince Charles getting married.

I was in 4th grade when Mary Lou Retton won the gold medal!

I was in 5th grade when the Challenger exploded. It was a big deal at my school because the 6th grade teacher had been in the running to be chosen, but got pregnant and had to bow out. They wheeled an old TV into the classrooms so we could watch.

I was a freshmen in high school when the first Iraq war started. I remember seeing the images of Tel Aviv being bombed. I was at a salon with my mom and we were getting our hair cut, and the stylists were all freaking out about their brothers potentially being drafted.

I had just gotten home from visiting my sister in Seattle when Kurt Cobain died.

I was in college when the OJ Simpson verdict was read. The professor let us watch on TV during class.

I was the first person at my office on the morning of 09/11, when my boss called me and told me to go to the break room and put the TV on. I was in the break room watching live when the second plane hit. As my coworkers arrived, they each ran to the break room to see what they'd been hearing on the news. We all watched that TV all day long.

I was in the school parking lot on 12/14/12 picking up my kids when I heard about Sandy Hook and the horror of 20 first graders being gunned down. I had a child in first grade at the time.

Haha well I was 13 months old so not much, but my husband was in grade 3 home sick from school..pay phones were a myth haha just kidding. man ..

I was in London and will always remember the wonderful Princess Diana being killed. The entire country shut down for a week in mourning. . I stood in line to lay flowers at her home. You could feel the sorrow everywhere you went. It was just sadness unlike the horror of 9/11 which was also laced with fear. I don't think we have a national treasure in the US in the same way GB viewed Princess Diana.

I also remember where I was when the Challenger exploded, we were watching it live in my high school yearbook class. So sad.
Other things I remember: the day John Lennon was killed, when Reagan was shot, the day of the Oklahoma bombing and of course, 9/11. I saw the second plane hit the building live on TV and I went into the bathroom and threw up.
And I know I will never forget day of the Sandy Hook school murders :-(

I remember when Elvis died. I was young but my mom was upset. We were in the car driving down to visit my grandparents in Texas when it was announced on the radio.

I remember when John Lennon died. I was in HS. A girl I knew in school fainted and missed a couple of days of school.

I remember the Challenger. I was in my first year of college. I was watching it on TV and saw it live. I walked out of my dorm room and several others did as well and we all looked at each other asking if what we just saw really happened.

I was on the phone with my mom when the Columbia exploded. She saw the fire ball in the sky over her house in Texas. She was freaking out.

I was watching TV and ironing pants when 9/11 happened. Saw the second plane hit live. Thought I was going to be sick. Cried with my friend when she found out her sister was at the Pentagon and they weren't sure where she was.

I was with my Brother and SIL in Chicago when it was announced that Princess Diana has been in a car wreck. We talked about how we hoped she would be ok and that her boys really needed her and had been through a lot. I still remember hearing them announce her death. So sad.

I also remember watching the American hockey team beat the Russians!! Awesome!!!

I remember walking from one bar to another with friends in the East Village of NYC when someone ran into the street and yelled, "Mike Tyson just bit someone's ear of!!"
And when I was at my design desk in an garment office in Los Angeles when on of the tech girls came in and told everyone Kurt Cobain was dead.
Wow, what a different times and places :)

I was sitting in my aunt's kitchen when Charles and Di got married. I don't remember how old I was, but I was in elementary school I think.

I was 16 when the Challenger exploded. I don't remember it actually happening, but I remember talking about it a ton after the fact.

When 9/11 occurred, I was teaching a senior Literature course, and one of my students walked in at the beginning of my second period class and told me what was happening. I didn't believe him, and he said that the TV was on in his first period class and he saw the first plane hit the building. I turned on the TV, and I saw what was happening. My students and I couldn't pull our eyes from the TV. We sat and cried together, then everyone started talking about who they knew in NY and Washington, and who they needed to contact. We all wanted to go home to be with our families. I distinctly remember the overwhelming sadness and fear we all felt, and how connected we all felt, too. I still keep in touch with many of those students, today.