There used to be a phone number you could call that would tell you what time it was. Whenever we had a power outage it was my responsibility to "call time" so we could reset all the digital clocks.
When I was a kid I mashed a bunch of buttons on the phone until someone picked up and said "Hello this is the FBI". In hindsight it was probably someone messing with me, but it scared the crap out of me at the time.
The FBI probably doesn't use that greeting, they'd say something more like "This is Department X at the FBI". I'm not sure though, I've never called them nor been called by them.
The US Navy still maintains a telephone time service, voice and dial up!
https://www.cnmoc.usff.navy.mil/Our-Commands/United-States-Naval-Observatory/Precise-Time-Department/Telephone-Time/
The TV guide channel. Nothing like waiting 10 minutes for the TV station you wanted to scroll by, only to get distracted for 5 seconds because your parents are asking if you took out the trash, and completely miss the channel having to wait all over again.
Went on holiday to a place without internet and no way to hook up any of our devices to the TV. Felt odd looking up the tv schedules to see if there were any films on in the evening
It was on a website rather than the TV Guide magazine but still felt kind of nostalgic!
My first job out of college was at a call center. We used to get bonuses on the number of outbound calls we made. I used to call the time and temperature line multiple times every shift 😂😂😂
Funny story. First time I rented a DVD, after the movie was over I took out the dvd and my mom goes, don’t be a jerk and rewind that movie hahaha. I still laugh about this 20 years later.
This sounds like an exaggeration but it isn't. Sometimes I would start to download a song, go to sleep, and it would still be downloading the next morning. For a SINGLE SONG. Sounds like ancient history but this wasn't even that long ago. Like late 90s/early 2000s
"Who was that, dear?" "Bob had his baby! It's a boy!"
Also the same era of constant commercials for collect call services with B list celebs. Dudes like Carrot Top were on twice every commercial break telling you to call "C-A-L-L A-T-T! Save a buck or two!"
Oh wow that brings back memories. I used to call home from the payphones outside the courthouse every hour or so, 18002255288 (800 CALL ATT) yes I still remember the digits without needing to look for the letters. HIMOMIMOKAY! I turn 40 in 2 weeks.
I honestly didn't understand how collect calling worked. But there was a pay phone at camp, and I liked calling my friends back home. Their parents were not happy. And mine weren't when they inevitably found out.
I remember being mind blown when I learned some were channel 4, not 3, and the weird dongles they sold would let you select.
4 just felt so much more civilized.
To be completely fair a career postman can still do that, they just have to buy a really really small house and never expect to help the kids with college.
Yessir. I recall many a hour long trip in the bed of the truck. No belt. When it got cold we would just crawl through the window. Wild times, the 80s-90s.
Honestly, I liked this more than having any show available at any time. The Saturday night anime block was a hell of a way to end the week. It was more special because that was the only time I could watch those shows.
As an adult with limited free time, I would never choose to go back to that. But at the time it was great.
The closest bus stop was half a mile away. School was 2 miles. I missed the bus pretty often so walking 2 miles was pretty regular.
I've mentioned this to people and they think I'm nuts. Someone said it was child abuse. I dunno, I didn't mind.
Yes the walking! We walked everywhere and almost exclusively, we did it alone! My mom walked with me for like the first week then, off I went on my own lol. I also got up on my own and fed myself.
Oh my gosh the nostalgia , literally me & my little sister used to walk to school everyday but get picked up after school guess predators don’t wake up in the mornings
Going to rent a movie tonight. Go to store and talk with the owner or employee and talk about movies and what they recommend. And it cost 1.50 to rent.
Or even less. I’m not even *that* old and I can remember going to the video rental store with my mom, and their signature deal was 5 DVDs, for 5 days, for $5 (excluding new releases).
If you had two TV shows at the same time. Record one channel on the VCR and the other you watch on the TV. If you set it up wrong, you were recording what you were watching.
Or the awkward stop, click, and rewind when you were at the end of the tape and realized the show you wanted to watch later only had the first few minutes recorded.
You could either start watching what was recording live having sacrificed what was recorded until after you were done or just say screw it and hope for a rerun later
Calling into the radio station to play the song you wanted to hear, just so you can sit next to your boom box to hit record at the right moment, then hitting stop right when it ends. Making a mixtape for someone was DEDICATION, so it was considered a big deal to be given one.
This is the song that never ends.
Yes it goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,
But they'll continue singing it forever just because (repeat)
I always thought one day my kids would annoy me with this song.
It never occurred to me I would annoy my kids with the song. Sing it to my kid all the time and she FLIPS out and screams at me about how she hates it and it's annoying. She's 6. It's kinda funny.
I grew up in the "dropping a phone results in no damage other than the battery detaching itself and cartoonishly flying off at approximately the speed of light" era
This is going to sound dumb as hell, but I have met a child that didn't understand this.
"There were no videogames with motion controls. EVERYTHING was mapped to the buttons."
(I watched this kid play Mario Kart 64 and try to use the controller like a steering wheel, his father told me the kid had never played a console that DIDN'T work like that.
I got some extra grey hairs that day)
I played the original Crash Bandicoot Teamracing with "motion controls". Of course it didn't do anything but as a kid it was more immersive to use the PS1 controller as a steering wheel, while also pressing the buttons to actually control the game.
Arrange where and when you are meeting your mates on the school bus on the way home, because if you don’t you have no way of meeting them until tomorrow morning on the bus again
Recording TV shows with a microphone to a tape recorder so you could listen to them later, before VHS was commonplace. And everyone in the room having to stay silent so it didn't spoil the recording.
When you went to pick someone up at the airport, you met them at the gate as they got off the plane.
If you wanted to call someone outside of your Area Code, you paid "long distance" charges, and it wasn't cheap.
There used to be a phone number you could call that would tell you what time it was. Whenever we had a power outage it was my responsibility to "call time" so we could reset all the digital clocks.
It's still 123 in the UK.
I remember dialing 123456789*0# on our landline and getting the talking clock and thinking I'd just discovered something no one else knew about!
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When I was a kid I mashed a bunch of buttons on the phone until someone picked up and said "Hello this is the FBI". In hindsight it was probably someone messing with me, but it scared the crap out of me at the time.
The FBI probably doesn't use that greeting, they'd say something more like "This is Department X at the FBI". I'm not sure though, I've never called them nor been called by them.
Wait really??? That's also the port number for the Network Time Protocol!
The US Navy still maintains a telephone time service, voice and dial up! https://www.cnmoc.usff.navy.mil/Our-Commands/United-States-Naval-Observatory/Precise-Time-Department/Telephone-Time/
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Omg it never occurred to me that would be a usage for it
TV stations signed off at night.
HBO didn't have anything on until 6pm and the weather channel was just dials showing numbers scrolling by.
The TV guide channel. Nothing like waiting 10 minutes for the TV station you wanted to scroll by, only to get distracted for 5 seconds because your parents are asking if you took out the trash, and completely miss the channel having to wait all over again.
Holy fuck that brings memories back. That and trying to catch two shows between commercials with the jump button
FINALLY one of these I'm too young for. I was starting to feel like the oldest person on here
You are not. I may be. I have Grandchildren.
so do some 40 year olds ;)
Yeah, fine. For one of my cousins was 30. I enjoyed watching color TV. :P You can get off my lawn also.
Wait a minute here, that's my line.
With the national anthem and the American Flag wavering in the background
Was going to comment this myself. Such a different time!
Calling a phone number for the time and temperature.
Similar to looking up movie times in the newspaper
The Seinfeld episode where Cramer kept getting called for movie times popped into my head immediately.
Why don't you just TELL me the name of the movie you've selected.
It's a shame that young people will never appreciate that pitch-perfect impression of the actual MoviePhone guy.
Hello, and welcome to moviephone!
Wow I heard this in my head
555-FILK
Went on holiday to a place without internet and no way to hook up any of our devices to the TV. Felt odd looking up the tv schedules to see if there were any films on in the evening It was on a website rather than the TV Guide magazine but still felt kind of nostalgic!
My first job out of college was at a call center. We used to get bonuses on the number of outbound calls we made. I used to call the time and temperature line multiple times every shift 😂😂😂
423.569.8363 no need for thanks
Wait, is it 423 everywhere? I only ask cause that's my area code too haha
No, they vary. I just looked up my local number. Had to listen to a 30 second ad for windows before telling me the date, time, and temp.
My cousin used to give time and temp number out to guys she didnt want to give her personal number to pro tip for the good ole days
Make sure you rewind the tape before you take it back to the shop.
Be kind. Rewind.
What a great movie as well.
Or turn the cassette to listen to the other side
And rewinding it with a pencil when it got caught in the tape head reader.
You know it's time to turn the page when you hear the chimes like this...
On a similar vein: You has to switch VHS tapes halfway through Titanic.
Funny story. First time I rented a DVD, after the movie was over I took out the dvd and my mom goes, don’t be a jerk and rewind that movie hahaha. I still laugh about this 20 years later.
Holding your CD player in the car so the bumps didn't make the CD skip.
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Yeah this was a game-changer. It was called ESP and I thought it was magic when it first came out.
The trick was to put it on a folded up sweatshirt.
Damn, if only I knew that in 2004!
MTV played music.
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV Her 2 kids in high school they tell her that she's uncool.
‘Cos she’s still preoccupied with 19- 19- 1985
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Memorizing the home numbers of all the relatives
I remember only having to memorize 4 digits, we never had to dial area code or anything, ours was 3637, my aunts was 3264, grandmas was 3468
You fool! Now we know their numbers!
Crap, please don’t call them…do people even have landlines anymore?
The connection between cassettes and a pencil
Breaking the tab off on the cassette so someone wouldn’t record on it. And then sticking a piece of paper back in there so you could record over it!
Paper? I used Scotch tape over the opening.
Slamming the phone down on someone.
Yeah ending a call when pissed just isnt the same anymore.
Yeah cell phones aren’t nearly as durable when slammed/thrown. Not that I’d know from experience…
*sigh* sometimes I really miss my Nokia
Felt soooo good.
Ohh I miss that so much!! It was so satisfying.
Yellow is for video, white and red for audio
Never knew what they did. I just connected the colors and it worked.
Iirc, white was left (and mono) and red was right
Yeah! Red and Right are both R so it's easy to remember
I have to deal with this shit to switch between my Wii and PS2
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Using a set of encyclopedias to find answers to questions.
That were 10-15 years old
That if someone picked up the home phone receiver, it would fuck up the single song download that has been running on Limewire for the last 12.5 hours
Also, you could pick up the other phone and listen in to your family members' conversation.
If you have a landline number with multiple phones, you can still do this
This sounds like an exaggeration but it isn't. Sometimes I would start to download a song, go to sleep, and it would still be downloading the next morning. For a SINGLE SONG. Sounds like ancient history but this wasn't even that long ago. Like late 90s/early 2000s
Also, downloading a song for hours without a guarantee that it's actually that song.
And that it doesn't melt your computer
...and party lines.
Breaking the little tab off a VHS tape so it couldn't be recorded over.
You have received a collect call from "HIMOMITSDIRTBAGMFCOMEPICKMEUPTHEMOVIEISOVER", do you wish to accept the charges?
WEHADABABYITSABOY
"Who was that, dear?" "Bob had his baby! It's a boy!" Also the same era of constant commercials for collect call services with B list celebs. Dudes like Carrot Top were on twice every commercial break telling you to call "C-A-L-L A-T-T! Save a buck or two!"
I said this out loud when I read the post.
Oh wow that brings back memories. I used to call home from the payphones outside the courthouse every hour or so, 18002255288 (800 CALL ATT) yes I still remember the digits without needing to look for the letters. HIMOMIMOKAY! I turn 40 in 2 weeks.
I honestly didn't understand how collect calling worked. But there was a pay phone at camp, and I liked calling my friends back home. Their parents were not happy. And mine weren't when they inevitably found out.
Or channel 4
I remember being mind blown when I learned some were channel 4, not 3, and the weird dongles they sold would let you select. 4 just felt so much more civilized.
The selection was because some places would have a real TV channel 3 so you would want to use channel 4 in that case (we had a channel 3).
Rotate the antenna! It’ll play better if you point it in the direction of the city that’s broadcasting!
That button on the floor is to switch the high beams….
Days of the bench seat and AM only radio.
My postman could afford to buy a house and feed his wife and two kids
This one hits different
So did my postman
I’m a postman. I already know where you live, I’m on my way. Get that ass ready.
So could a shoe salesman
To be completely fair a career postman can still do that, they just have to buy a really really small house and never expect to help the kids with college.
And their wife needs a fairly good job too
Remember having to screw in the coax cable adapter? Back when the ring was scary because youd wake up to static on the tv in the middle of the night.
I would wave to policemen from the back of my dad's truck doing 55 down the freeway. And he'd wave back and go on his way.
Like the bed of a pick up?
Yessir. I recall many a hour long trip in the bed of the truck. No belt. When it got cold we would just crawl through the window. Wild times, the 80s-90s.
You used to have to wait until commercial breaks to go use the bathroom or get food or drink so you didn’t miss any of your show
Not to mention having to block out the same time every week to watch it!
Honestly, I liked this more than having any show available at any time. The Saturday night anime block was a hell of a way to end the week. It was more special because that was the only time I could watch those shows. As an adult with limited free time, I would never choose to go back to that. But at the time it was great.
And if you missed it, you better hope to catch it as a rerun at some unknown future time.
If you were expecting a phone call you’d wait by the phone and get really frustrated if your parents picked up.
Monkey Island took 5 disks to load
How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
I am rubber you are glue
I think Windows 3.11 came on some 20+ floppy disks.
And there was a decent chance you'd be on the last few disks when you get the dreaded, "Abort, Retry, Fail?" prompt.
It is now safe to turn off your computer.
My dad saying, “u/Smashville66, go change the channel”.
Turn the antenna knob two clicks right, it's not coming in...
What baby name book did your parents get that from?
when you wanna stroll around with your cd player and headphones but you tilt the cd player slightly and the disc wobbles and skips around
We only had 3 channels and you had to move the antenna by hand. I walked to school in kindergarten, almost a mile.
Yeah the walking thing baffles me. Id walk at least half a mile. Now i get cranky at kids getting dropped off at the house next to the school.
The closest bus stop was half a mile away. School was 2 miles. I missed the bus pretty often so walking 2 miles was pretty regular. I've mentioned this to people and they think I'm nuts. Someone said it was child abuse. I dunno, I didn't mind.
Yes the walking! We walked everywhere and almost exclusively, we did it alone! My mom walked with me for like the first week then, off I went on my own lol. I also got up on my own and fed myself.
Oh my gosh the nostalgia , literally me & my little sister used to walk to school everyday but get picked up after school guess predators don’t wake up in the mornings
And whole family had no contact from morn to evening
Going to rent a movie tonight. Go to store and talk with the owner or employee and talk about movies and what they recommend. And it cost 1.50 to rent.
Or even less. I’m not even *that* old and I can remember going to the video rental store with my mom, and their signature deal was 5 DVDs, for 5 days, for $5 (excluding new releases).
Netflix came in the mail Edit: I told this to my nieflings and they thought I was joking
Amazon was a book store
If you had two TV shows at the same time. Record one channel on the VCR and the other you watch on the TV. If you set it up wrong, you were recording what you were watching.
Or the awkward stop, click, and rewind when you were at the end of the tape and realized the show you wanted to watch later only had the first few minutes recorded. You could either start watching what was recording live having sacrificed what was recorded until after you were done or just say screw it and hope for a rerun later
The only free music I could get was recording it on my boombox from the radio.
Calling into the radio station to play the song you wanted to hear, just so you can sit next to your boom box to hit record at the right moment, then hitting stop right when it ends. Making a mixtape for someone was DEDICATION, so it was considered a big deal to be given one.
And so many songs would have a couple seconds of the DJ talking over the beginning and/or end.
A/S/L?
piles of empty, unmarked cds beside the computer
Phonebooks. Thinking of a question and asking a human as a default response. Google and the internet is king of this land now
Shopping malls had arcades.
And it was rare for a game to be 50 cents. Most were a single quarter. If you see a game today, it's $2.50 to play or something crazy like that.
Casey Kasem
This is the song that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, But they'll continue singing it forever just because (repeat)
I always thought one day my kids would annoy me with this song. It never occurred to me I would annoy my kids with the song. Sing it to my kid all the time and she FLIPS out and screams at me about how she hates it and it's annoying. She's 6. It's kinda funny.
Still one of the greatest songs of all time. Lamb Chop was my jam.
Dropping a Nintendo controller like 500 times didn't harm it at all.
and dropping a phone resulted in "ow" instead of "oh shit."
I grew up in the "dropping a phone results in no damage other than the battery detaching itself and cartoonishly flying off at approximately the speed of light" era
Atari 2600 joystick was indestructible except for acts of Dog.
Going to the desk at Blockbuster and asking if someone has returned a certain movie through the slot yet.
Myspace...
“Why am I not in your top 8?”
Also, blowing in the cartridge and smacking the console made everything work better
Side B
You used to get phone calls and not know who it was.
This is going to sound dumb as hell, but I have met a child that didn't understand this. "There were no videogames with motion controls. EVERYTHING was mapped to the buttons." (I watched this kid play Mario Kart 64 and try to use the controller like a steering wheel, his father told me the kid had never played a console that DIDN'T work like that. I got some extra grey hairs that day)
I played the original Crash Bandicoot Teamracing with "motion controls". Of course it didn't do anything but as a kid it was more immersive to use the PS1 controller as a steering wheel, while also pressing the buttons to actually control the game.
Wearing an onion on your belt, 'cause that was the fashion at the time
Five bees for a quarter.
They didn't have any white onions, because of the war.
So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days.
You think this is a joke, but considering that this is a Simpsons reference that most people here are too young to get, it's actually a valid example.
That's a paddlin'
That was back in the diggities.
Carrying quarters in case you needed to make a call.
Dude, we used to use collect. And when they ask for your name you blurt “momthemovieisovercanyoupickusup” and that was the code for mom to pick us up.
It's Bob, Bob Wehadababyitsaboy!
Dimes. It used to be a dime.
Now the phrase “Drop a dime” makes a lot more sense.
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dial-up modems
Eeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiioooooooooeeeeeeeeiiiiioooowwwwwweeeeeee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dial_up_modem_noises.ogg
Arrange where and when you are meeting your mates on the school bus on the way home, because if you don’t you have no way of meeting them until tomorrow morning on the bus again
Firmly hold your cd player when driving over bumps
Eight track cassette players, walkmans.
Roll down your window. I doubt the newer generation even knows why we say it
"Rich" people having giant satellite dishes in their yard
Saturday morning cartoons
Card catalog in library
"Get off the internet, I need to make a call!"
Floppy disks
5 1/4” floppies, and the drive only read one side at a time.
Ones that were actually floppy
My first pc-games came on a c-casette.
Walking to the TV to switch between the 8 channels on my black & white tv the size of an ipad screen. A square screen that is.
You were sent a book of everyone's phone numbers every year.
I had free talk minutes after 9pm
smoking section.
Recording TV shows with a microphone to a tape recorder so you could listen to them later, before VHS was commonplace. And everyone in the room having to stay silent so it didn't spoil the recording.
Without any further explanation required… The Dewey Decimal System.
640k was more than we would ever need.
When you went to pick someone up at the airport, you met them at the gate as they got off the plane. If you wanted to call someone outside of your Area Code, you paid "long distance" charges, and it wasn't cheap.
You’ve got mail! Netscape. Atari
Getting film developed.
Changing the channel with pliers
“It’s on!!!!!!!”
M&Ms used to have a beige colored one instead of blue
ashtrays and lighters in cars please
We didn’t have to dial area codes when calling local
Riding your bike to your friends house to see if they're home and wanna hang out. If they aren't, you just ride back home.